Plug-In Power!: The Comprehensive DSP Guide

I purchased this book directly from the author at a seminar. I was not expecting the book to contain some of the information it leads off with - namely, the fundamentals of audio. When I got to the meat of the book, I found that his description of some of the plug-ins were not limited to the plug-ins themselves from the individual manufacturer, but there was also a very informative, detailed introduction to that *type* of plug - dynamics, modulation, reverb, etc. Also covered are real-world examples of different scenarios in which the plug-in would be used. Mr. Shepherd has written a wonderfully readable text on the subject of plug-ins for modern digital audio recording that will not be instantly out-of-date. The subjects covered are far higher-level, even though individual plug-ins are detailed. I highly recommend this text to any budding or experienced audio engineer.

I've only had the book for about an hour, but after paging through its entirety and then forcing myself to put it down until after work, I can tell you that this is a fantastic and unique work. Mr. Shepherd has written a guide which lives up to the title. Not only does he describe the features of just about all of the most important plug-ins, both native and accelerated, he has also written the most comprehensive, usable, and up-to-date guide to the tools and techniques of Digital Audio Production which I have ever seen. He gives loads of extremely useful information which I've never seen collected in one place. For instance, there is a great introduction to the concept of sidechaining and its practical application ("Side-Chaining or Keying" p151) as well as sections addressing concepts like what type of equalization technique is best ("To Sweep or Not to Sweep" pg 131). This is in addition to excellent treatments of the more basic concepts (sampling, bit-depth, metering, etc) required when working with digital audio. I haven't even gotten in to the chapters about Convolution or Surround Mixing, but they look great. My only critique so far is that he neglected to mention ImageLine's FL Studio in his discussion of host applications. I mention this because I regard FL Studio to be the best thing going on the PC side of digital audio, and I'd like to see it recognized by a wider audience. He easily makes up for this by covering FX-Teleport (p36) which I regard to be the second coolest thing going. In case you are wondering, I have no affiliation with the author, and my only affiliation with the creators of FL Studio and FX Teleport is that I have paid for their software.